Hi David,
Part of the point of the Borneo Bird Festival was to launch these two new
guides, and I have to say they are both fairly good. Like the Aussie
guides, neither is perfect, and both do some species better than the other.
I honestly couldn't recommend one over the other, however I did go with
Myers because the general consensus was that her images were a little more
accurate/useful. We did notice on a number of occasions the Myers guide was
a little out of date with information, for example, Javan Myna was
considered not present in Sabah, but we saw many Javan Mynas in the area. I
guess if you prefer good images, possibly lean towards the Myers book, and
if you prefer good text, the Phillips book, but if you are in doubt, why not
get both?
Regards,
Chris
ps. insert usual disclaimer about having no financial interest in either
guide.
On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 3:12 PM, David Adams <> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 3:41 PM, Gary Wright
> <> wrote:
> > Hi David
> > Can you give the details of the field guides you mentioned?
>
> Historically, two books have been commonly used:
>
> "A Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo, Sumatra, Java, and Bail"
> John MacKinnon & Karen Phillipps
> This book is out of print and hard to obtain. The binding falls apart
> and you're really left wishing for a modern guide.
>
> "A Pocket Guide to the Birds of Borneo"
> Compiled by Charles M. Francis - published by the Sabah Society.
> This is a tiny pocket book with the plates from the (enormous) "Birds
> of Borneo" by Smythies - I think from the 1950's. By now, it's not all
> that useful.
>
> Robson's South-East Asia guide was the only modern guide available
> until recently - but doesn't cover the Bornean endemics. (I like
> Robson and it's been well worth taking to Borneo.) Now there are two
> new guides. I've ordered both but have seen neither:
>
> "Birds of Borneo: Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak, and Kalimantan"
> Susan Myers - Her new blog is at
> http://birdtourleader.blogspot.com/
>
> "Phillipp's Field Guide to the Birds of Borneo: Sabah, Sarawak, Brunei
> and Kalimantan"
> Quentin Phillipps
>
> I'm looking forward to seeing these books, hearing what other people
> report about them and, ultimately, field testing them!
> ===============================
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
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